I found these two books to be pretty helpful -- of course, at the stage I'm at, probably any book would be really helpful. Mountain Light is a tour through some of Galen Rowell's photographs. He described how he happened to be in the place, how he picked his location and angle and so forth. Interspersed with the photographic exhibits are chapters on various aspects of picture taking, where I learned about film reciprocity, hyperfocal distance, and the all important 1/focal length rule of thumb for safe speeds to handhold a photo. It was especially useful to read about Rowell's thought process, the place of luck, and to see that even a great photographer is taking lots of shots because he's not sure which the best one will be. That one tip alone put me at ease about experimenting. Of course, digital makes this easy since it's cheap to record images, at least until you copy them onto your hard disk. The other big tip that is helping me a lot is that most beginner photographs can be improved by cropping the foreground. Even though there was plenty of information in the book, these two simple tips will probably have the most impact on me.

On Being Photographer is an interview between David Hurns and Bill Jay. Here also I found an emphasis on taking picture, exploring angles and positions and so forth. The discussion of contact sheets and Hurn's way of reading a photographer's intention by reading his contact sheets was also encouraging. I think that you could use Flickr that way, if you had a group of people who were interested in improving their art/skill together. At least until you blew your upload limit.

I'll confess to having somewhat of an artistic block (or perhaps phobia) when it comes to the visual arts. I'm fine with music, but painting, colors, photography, UI design are all arenas that just intimidate me. Perhaps the shutterbug will help me overcome that. I'm certainly having a good time snapping picutres.

If people have recommendations of good photography books, I'd love to hear them. I know that the best way to learn is to take pictures, and I have every intention of doing that. Yet, a small comment in a book, or via blog/Flickr/e-mail can go a long way when you are a beginner.

Landed on your blog while I was trying to find my way out of an XML-RPC blogging project of my own... Anyway, you're on the dot with your last paragraph: snapping pictures is the only way to become a better photographer!

Actually, I find that the hardest part is to figure oute what to picture... For instance, I mostly do inanimate objects and landscapes, because I don't really know how to take picture of people.

Welcome to photography, Ted! Digital photographic technologies have made great pictures so much more accessible to everyday life that I am certainly having the fun that I didn't know I could have before. One example is my recent experience with AutoStitch. I think you will like it, too.
Posted by Jun Yang at Wed Jul 27 23:53:40 2005

I would say I make the most strides in picture taking when I take one day (usually once a month), and take 1,000 pictures. Sure a lot are of the same thing, and a lot are dumb; but looking through them all and finding the treasures teaches me a lot about what makes one shot better than another.
Posted by Derek at Fri Aug 5 00:10:21 2005

try Brenda Thrap "Creative Nature & Outdoor Photography". Good value if you do the exercises and take a month to work through it. Really its all about causing you're brain to see in new ways.

Another recommendation that occured to me this morning: Freeman Patterson "The Art of Seeing"[1] (his original), in fact anything by Freeman. I find his books better at teaching than Galen Rowell's. As an added bonus Freeman's books have been around for a long time - you can find many of them used in bookstores for a dollar or two.

Another recommendation that occured to me this morning: Freeman Patterson "The Art of Seeing"[1] (his original), in fact anything by Freeman. I find his books better at teaching than Galen Rowell's. As an added bonus Freeman's books have been around for a long time - you can find many of them used in bookstores for a dollar or two.

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